This last week or so has been mental. Gigs nearly every night of the week, radio interview slots, and lots of industry interest.

We've been asked to perform at not one, but TWO of this year's London "City Showcase" Events. This event showcases up-and-coming musical talent and has unearthed the likes of Newton Faulkner, Bens Brother, David Ford and Amy Winehouse in recent years. If you can come down then please do!

June 3rd 2008 1:30PM -
Timberland Store - Regents Street - LONDON, South

June 6th 2008 3:45PM -
Ben Sherman Store - Carnaby Street - LONDON, South

There has been quite a bit of publishing interest in our album "Parrysland" which we have literally only just finished, from some massive publishers and some smaller ones two.

We have also had some quite exciting news regarding a clothing sponsorship deal, some massive brands being talked about, and a lot of money being talked about. Scary shizzle. Guitar endorsement is also on the cards, but I don't wana jinx that one coz I really want some new toys to play with. Ha! I've been playing the same Eko acoustic for ten years! No joke! A hand-me-down from my dad. If anyone can pull-off a guitar endorsement, it's our manager Kevin Reynolds who is working his little cotton socks off for us. Big respect :)

Hear some of the new tracks in our new widget below. These are early mixes and still unmastered but you get the picture:

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So! The time has come - The big move to London, we've been putting it off for a while, but now it seems we have no choice - it's all quite exciting really. Debut Album 'Parrysland' is now (more-or-less) finished! Just tweaks now... Massive shout out to producer Bruce Woods for all his help (and patience) with us. We're picky bastards, but it sounds sweet! :)  

We officially have a new management team and are proud to be working (very hard) with Kevin Reynolds and Tony Patrick of KRMB Management, alongside all their associates. Contracts are currently being checked over by solicitors, but i'm pretty confident that i'm 100% behind these guys coz they're amazing chaps, work really freakin hard, genuine to the core (and i'm not being naive i've worked with crappy management before), oodles and oodles of faith in our project and most of all, these guys have been there (toured the world) and really really have our artistic interests at heart. Of course there's financial incentives, but who the frell doesn't have financial incentives in this business? Anyways, they have already booked us a blitz of London shows at some swanky-ass venues and showcase nights with some top promoters. If you can come, then do chat to us and i'll get u a drink - tap water anyone? :)

KRMB have already had some rave responses from some top industry people about our material. They've been looking to get us a good agent and are in talks with Kevin Moss from http://www.formula13.co.uk/artistbooking/ . All good shizz-ma-dizzle. They are also sorting our new website which is in the pipe-line, www.ashleyhicklin.com - watch that space! There is lots planned for us over the next few months, and i'm feeling pretty good about it all! Wooohoo!

Album art is an on-going process, but we've been working and planning for quite a while with an absolute legend called Simon Heaton (who really is the absolute shizzle dizzle). The guy's work blows me away. This is his initial mock designs - it's like a ye olde book cover - looks phit:

parryslandbookcover.jpg

We've got a meeting with photographers tomorrow to discuss plans for our shoot. We pretty much know what we want, but i'm sure our management and the photographer / stylist people have ideas of their own too. It's gonna be BBC Radio 2 all over. Haha! i'm such a geek, but frankly I don't give a shizzle, Radio 2 is where the money's at...

Quite a few people are asking to hear the new album tracks, but i'm gonna resist until it's been mastered i'm afraid, sorry folks. It shouldn't be more than a few weeks now I reckon, promise ;)

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What a sad day it was to hear about the death of the superb sax player Jason Rae. Seriously, if you ever saw the Leeds-based Haggis Horns play live you'd know what I mean. This guy was something else on a baritone sax. My thoughts go out to the Rae family and friends. It sure makes you think twice about dabbling in drugs and who you trust for that matter. The world lost a good guy on saturday, but I hope the Haggis Horns battle on coz they rule. 

Apparantly we were played on BBC Radio Leeds on Saturday Night, but we didn't know anything about it! They got hold of our Live session we did for BBC 1 Look North and played it on the Graham Liver show.

We also had a good feature in the local Yorkshire Evening News Paper with a nice big picture overlooking Leeds with Christine Boothroyd who has sponsored a CD of Leeds hottest musical exports! And we're on it! Woo!

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The lovely Troubadour Quartet layed down some strings for the album this past week. It was a barrel of giggles! Henry, first fiddle, thought it would be funny to perform in just his boxers for the duration of the session. It was pretty funny, until he nearly got caught by someone that co-owns / runs the studio we've been recording in. JD drummer maestro also layed down some drums in the studio (check out his guns and his Zildjan K cymbals - very nice indeed):

We played a really good busy London gig in the Wilmington Arms in Angel a cupla weeks back. A few managers from Supervision Managment Group (who look after Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand etc.) were there scouting and one of them (Dan Moore) approached me afterwards. He liked the set and had some good pointers for future reference. Top bloke. Big shout to Kevin from KRMB management who came down and is subsequently booking us for a load of showcases, absolute legend. The chaps from Underdog management & PR also deserve a big pat on the back for putting on such a good night. Mega success all round i'd say :)

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Bob Miller (Corinne Bailey Rae's manager) rang me having watched our live video for BBC1 this week. He reckons we shoud all stay away from the major labels at the moment... He's not the first to mention such. Then a manager friend of mine sent me this:

http://www.powerampmusic.com/

Interesting stuff - Thoughts anyone?

Anyways, Bob Miller is busy in the US at the moment with Corinne, but he sent down a few industry types to see me playing to an absolutely rammed little venue in Huddersfield the other night - "Zephyr"? Megatron gig. One of the industry people was the lead guitarist from SMOKIE! Crazy! He co-runs a management company and they are taking me for dinner next week which is cool. I don't often get chance to sit and enjoy food for free :)

Leeds College of Music have released their first CD featuring 6 of their best exports - They featured our track "Memories & Faces" - I got sent for a photo shoot with this director woman (who was quite hot may I add - hope to god she doesn't read this) of a big company "The Chambers" who are sponsoring the CD. They are putting the CD in posh hotel rooms all across Leeds... Check out my picture in the cover art - It's in Leeds Town Hall in front of the big Organ!  :) 

LeedschambersCD.jpg

Our Live session for BBC 1 is going to be aired on the Main "Big Screens" in Leeds & Bradford everyday for a few weeks every night - I'm hoping bigger screens don't stretch your face or belly or else we could all look like rite fatties :)

Looks like our single "Home" could be distributed by local Leeds label IVOLV.

In other news, i've been asked to arrange strings for a cool new band on Heavenly (Scar on 45),  had 3 wicked gigs this week and a stupid amount of studio sessions (album is starting to sound polished), been teaching ignorant shitty kids how to sing opera?!"$, rehearsing, texting, calling and now i'm blogging. I seriously need to kip and take a dump :) 

Until next time, adios!

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The BBC invited us to perform a live session with the full Troubadour band, featuring the string-quartet, harp, piano, bass, drums, guitar and vox's. We performed our single 'Home', due for digital release in late march via all major distributors (i-tunes, napster etc). This short video will be featured on BBC 1 'Look North' television in the coming weeks. I'll keep you all posted on a date...

You can watch it below or via you tube / myspace:

www.myspace.com/ashleyhicklin  

ASHLEY HICKLIN & The Troubadours - Live BBC Session

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Loads of gigs this week... few pics courtesy of Stuart's photography in Leeds (Stu's mega!)... 

Loads of studio sessions for the forthcoming album this week too... few pics courtesy of my phone!

In other news, Kevin Reynolds (KRMB Management) is now acting as my deal broker with labels and publishers. Possibly the nicest bloke on the planet (and he's well into my project and music - always a bonus! ha)

He's talking me up with Jimmy Smith @ Parlophone and Guy Holmes @ Gut Records this week. All gud stuff.

If anyone's about in London this Wed i'm playing acoustic in King's Cross @ Canal 125...  

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BBC SESSION IMAGE

Home (Live BBC Session)

Ashley Hicklin & The Troubadours

We recently recorded a Live Video Session with the BBC in the studios in Leeds featuring the full band set-up (string quartet, harp, piano, drums, bass, guitar and vox's!).

The video footage is due in February, but we have just received the audio. The strings are a little low in the mix, but overall it sounds pretty good for a live recording. 

Absolutely no editing - this is completely live. "Liver than being Alive" says Presenter Graham Liver! What a cheese-ball! Love to know what everyone thinks...    

http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/articles/2008/01/31/local_heroes_graham_liver_introducing_feature.shtml

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Recorded a live video with the full-band (string quartet, harp, piano, drums, bass, acoustic guitar, vox) for a BBC documentary about the best up-and-coming bands from Leeds at the weekend. Think it went down really well with the techies in the studio. It should all be mixed by 1st February (fingers crossed) and will appear on the BBC Leeds Website, Graham Liver's BBC Radio show and possibly BBC Look North (television). Will keep you all posted...

In the studio today to lay down some piano & vox on the album. Should be finished March-ish. It's really starting to take shape - production wise, it's got a few thematic ideas which tie all the tracks together nicely (from harp harmonics to electronic beats and lots and lots of strings!)

Playing two gigs tomorrow; doing a live session in Zavvi record shop (formerly Virgin Megastores) and then straight over to the Mixing Tin (which is good coz I like the sound in there). If you're in London at the weekend check out Daniel Flay on saturday night @ Indie-boy's gig in Camden (Tommy Flynn's) - well worth a listen. Hopefully taking the full-band to play that night on the 8th / 9th of Feb if we can get it sorted.

Finding it hard to juggle muso happenings with money making (to live and progress!) at the moment, but what the hell, it's all fun and games - I can sleep when i'm dead I suppose...  Was chatting to Dave Farrow (Seth Lakeman's manager) before christmas, and he said "Ash how much do you want this? And how we gonna fund this album?" - Here's how I see it; i've been doing this for ten years, gigged like a bitch, learnt a lot, written a lot - i'm not messing about. I'm pretty lucky in that i've got some talented people in Leeds that believe in what i'm doing, and are making my album (in an amazing studio) for free - absolutely jack-diddly-squat! Now it's at the stage where i'm seriously considering risking serious money on some serious PR... Seth Lakeman got a Mercury Music Nomination off the back of some good-PR, but then again, I've got some close friends who've been stung in the tail by wasting money on PR. Hmm, gonna have to think hard, and do some serious research and talking...     

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Just got back from London, really productive weekend. Spoken to a few prospective new management companies and need to have a good think about what my best options are. I've got a few more further meetings in London later in the week so will post my thoughts in due course. All really positive stuff!    

The video below is a really rough video of a live and acoustic version of 'Never Say Never', filmed in Leeds on someone's mobile phone! Crazy! We have been asked to perform for a live BBC documentary in early January with the full-band, so will post once it's all done and sparkly! 

ASHLEY HICKLIN - Never Say Never - Live & Acoustic

Playing two gigs tonight! Bit mad, but we've got one at Dr Wu's on Call Lane and one at a new bar opening in the city centre (Leeds). The String quartet can't make it due to important orchestral duties, but the rest of the band will be there and folkin it up...

Caught some of the bands at James Lambert-Martin's gig in Camden at the weekend whilst I was down there. The sound was much to be desired but respect to the bands that battled through it regardless. Fox Cubs were pretty tight but sounded and looked very much like the Killers and every other band of that ilk - nothing particularly new to the ears. Then again, it seems that A&R are shitting themselves at the moment and bend-over anything that's got a proven track record of selling records (which the Killers certainly have), presumably due to the ever-evolving digital market in which we live and love. Maybe I'm just being a cynic? Maybe i'm speaking the truth...

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London London London! I've got a few meetings in the big smoke in early december, so fingers crossed i'm gonna pop into James Martin-Lambert's (AKA indie boy) night in Camden to check out how good these acts are live. Been chatting with Dave Farrow from DMF music this past few weeks (Seth Lakeman's manager) who has given my proposed debut album a whirl and reckons there are a few potential hits. He's in talks with EMI publishing about my material which is good. I'm also catching up with Jon Uren (Fruitcake Management - Tom McRae) and a few promoters/agents so will post progressions once I return 'up norf' as it were...  

I've been busy in the studio this week working on my favorite analogue Toft desk. I'm actually in love! (and the live room is immense!) New material is soon to follow, but for now you'll have to make do with a few pics of Bruce Woods who is co-producing with me at the moment...

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This is a rough demo of a new song, a proposed 'album track' (ie, not a single) about a lady called Alison. It's the first time i've really experimented with a more 'sample-based' sound; i usually record everything as a really 'live' sound with a full 'live' band, not sure if I like this or not?.. hmmm...   

Alison

Ashley Hicklin & The Troubadours

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